by Alan Briskin | Books, Collective Wisdom, Poetry
This poem was created out of fragments of speech over a three day period, drawing from individual conversations and group discussions I had or witnessed at the annual Berrett-Koehler Publishers Author
Co-op retreat. The language used was specific to the situation but I have been encouraged by others who were not there that it may have a significance beyond its original setting. I hope it tickles your fancy:
Collective Poem
We’re running short on time
but don’t knock yourself out:
We want to reach as many
People as possible
Skyrocket sales
Create a twenty-year book
from a launch party
that lets 1,000 flowers bloom.
Walking 2.5 miles of an
interpretive nature trail
I wonder how to interpret
my life.
Am I wayfarer or tourist?
I keep hearing that there is
so much to cover,
But did I not also hear
that the trail is a circle.
And in a circle, we will
come to the same place –
again and again.
Kabir said as much
But I felt the invitation
and the challenge.
When my time ends, will the
world cry or rejoice?
Two streams parallel the trail I’m on.
One flows from the past with all
its inconsistencies and shadow. The
other runs into the distance obscured
by the brush.
Are there not also two parallel lives
we live, the one on the inside and
the one we show to the world?
I know I need to tweet and blog
and have a services page,
but I have been instructed by
higher counselors to consider what
I need to receive, to ponder
what of value I resist.
There are those who bound over
rails, unencumbered by the
group… but we’re running short
of time and it is by holding
hands and moving accordion-like
that we will reach the
farther shore.
I was asked if
I was coming or going
and said Yes!
~ Alan Briskin, 2010
by Alan Briskin | Collective Wisdom, Consciousness, Health, Leadership, Poetry, Spirituality, Wellness
A poem based on phrases and fragments of a speech* given by Deepak Chopra:
My grandchildren are here today
the most important part for me.
Here is my question:
What if consciousness
was not
a byproduct of our brain?
What if instead
it is the ground of Being,
the basement of the Universe
in geometric space-time
where all co-exists
as possibilities.
The great Rishi wisdom teachings
tell us consciousness
cannot be imagined
but makes the imagination possible.
Can you imagine?
From the basement of space-time,
everything is born from a quantum vacuum,
Beauty, Truth, Love, Joy, Compassion,
and also our Diabolical Self.
There is only the collective mind
that shows up as the individual mind.
The sage plunges into it,
expresses it, becomes one with it.
Healing is nothing more than
the memory of wholeness
Nature can say that the
human species
was just an experiment
that didn’t work out
Or Not!
The frantic search for security
only reinforces the insecurity.
Surrender to the mystery
of the divine,
which is constantly on the move.
My grandchildren are
here today,
the most important part.
* Deepak Chopra’s speech, on which this poem was based, was given on the day he received the Goi Peace Award** in Tokyo, Japan, November 8th, 2010.
I was there as a moderator the following day for a panel discussion with Deepak and thought leaders from Japan on the subject of death and dying, and wrote the poem from fragments of his speech and the group conversation.
The mission of the Goi Peace Foundation, which sponsored both events, is to bring people together in wisdom, united in their hearts toward the common goal of peace on Earth. By encouraging public awareness and building cooperation among individuals and organizations in all fields, they aim to build an international peace network and stimulate the global trend toward a culture of peace.
